Earl Warren Finally Confirmed as Chief Justice

Because former Chief Justice Fred Vinson died suddenly in the fall of 1953, Earl Warren was given an interim appointment as Chief Justice on October 2, 1953. The Senate did not confirm him, however, until this day. Two-and-a-half months later, on May 17, 1954, Warren wrote the Court’s unanimous opinion in the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision; most scholars credit Warren with being responsible for persuading the other Justices of the importance of a unanimous 9–0 decision. Warren went on to become one of the great chief justices in the history of the Court. His name (the “Warren Court”) is synonymous with the great advances in civil liberties in the late 1950s and 1960s.